Fly My Pretties keep it fresh

Barnaby Weir, Ryan Prebble and Ria Hall preparing for A Day On The Green

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The Fly My Pretties juggernaut is about to hit the road again. More than a dozen musicians from different FMP incarnations have answered a call from the collective's mastermind, Barnaby Weir, to play the upcoming A Day On The Green.

Before their first gig tomorrow at Waipara's Mud House Winery, the 15-strong-band assembled in Wellington to rehearse and get back into the FMP groove.

Weir says the line-up was a re-formation rather than a new incarnation of the collective that has released four albums since forming first in 2004.

"We've got Ria Hall, who is new to the Pretties but aside from that, everybody else has done a show and an album with FMP," Weir explains.

"She's an award winning singer and she brought a new song for the Pretties to play.

"It's great to have some fresh talent in the line-up, but it's cool to see the old faces as well," he says.

Hall says blending in wasn't too hard. "I'm still very nervous to be around such an amazing calibre of musicians all in their own rights. The welcome has been very, very warm," she says.

"There have been a lot of emails between us, because we all live in different parts of the country. So we've been learning each other's songs via the internet and then came here and hoped that we had everything on point."

Long-time collaborator Ryan Prebble has also welcomed Hall into the FMP fold. "It's great having a fresh line-up. A lot of the people who are playing this time around haven't played with some people who are involved."

It's the first time this year that the Pretties are getting together, but Prebble says it was easy to falling back into the vibe.

"It's quite quick, because I have been involved a few times and it feels quite natural now, but I remember the first time I got involved, I was quite nervous.

"There are a lot of people you have admired for years and all of a sudden you're on a stage with them and they're playing on your songs and you're playing on their songs, that can feel a bit overwhelming but now that we're all just good mates it's fun," he says.

So what can we expect from this FMP line-up?

"The set we're looking at it kind of a best of, songs from all four albums," Weir says.

"Some people think Fly My Pretties is really folky and really down-beat but the set it really up-beat," he promises.

"We're playing Christchurch tomorrow night. I just really want to do the best job to entertain people. We want to go down and slam Christchurch and give them a good show."

Fly My Pretties are joined by The Black Seeds and the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. They're playing the Mud House Winery in Waipara tomorrow the Alana Estate Winery in Martinborough on December 8 and Auckland's Villa Maria Estate Winery on December 16.